26 HISTORY OF THE SHORT-HORNS. 



paid great attention to Short-horn cattle at the same time with the 

 Aislabies. Portraits of these animals were occasionally taken and 

 hung up to adorn the entrance of the hall ; but when the noble resi- 

 dence passed out of their hands those pictures were sold. We should 

 hope that they yet exist in some old curiosity shop, and if so, and 

 can be found, we shall then have a definite idea of what one family 

 of ancient Short-horns were."* 



There can be no question, as our following narrative will show, 

 that many valuable Short-horns, descended from and largely im- 

 proved in appearance and quality over the ancient race, then existed 

 in those counties, and were distributed in the hands of many differ- 

 ent breeders. To what degrees of excellence they had then attained 

 we do not know, nor do we know but a portion of the names of those 

 several breeders ; but at a later day, when their cattle had assumed 

 a consequence and celebrity sufficient to attract the attention of 

 agricultural writers a hundred years ago, they were chronicled in 

 the books and agricultural surveys of their neighborhoods as of 

 extraordinary value, and remarkable specimens of their race. The 

 cows were described as large milkers, and the bullocks as attaining 

 a great weight of carcass, and extraordinary productions of tallow. 



Aside from the herds on the Yorkshire, Durham and Northumber- 

 land estates, we have a few names, of the then conspicuous Short-horn 

 breeders in the earlier part, or before the middle of the eighteenth 

 century, (1750.) Among them are Mr. Milbank, of Barningham, Sir 

 William St. Quintin, of Scampston, Sir James Pennyman, of York- 

 shire, and others of less noble rank, showing that the attention of 

 some of the most respectable landholders was alive to the improve- 

 ment of their cattle. It is recorded that Mr. Milbank bred and fed 

 a five year old ox which, when slaughtered, the four quarters weighed 

 2104 pounds, the tallow 224 pounds, and the hide 151 pounds. Also, 



the grounds and estate, and I presume was the one who did so much for the Short-horns. On 

 his death the property went to his co-heir and relative, Mrs. Allanson, and on her death, in 1803, 

 to her niece, Mrs. Lawrence, and on her death, in 1854, to the present Earl De Grey, now a mem- 

 ber of Gladstone's Cabinet, who, although a man of mark in his way, I suspect cares very little 

 for country life or the improvement of his estate, as he resides on it but seldom, and his neighbors 

 have little to say of him in this respect, as they had of the Aislabies and their lady successors." 



The above mentioned Earl De Grey was one of the late "Joint High Commission," who nego- 

 tiated the treaty between the United States and England at Washington, in the year 1871. 



It is to be regretted that the descendants of the once noble Short-horns which ranged over that 

 lordly domain, should not still occupy the ground of their progenitors, which they long ago graced 

 in their picturesque colors and comely proportions. A poetic charm still hangs about the atmos- 

 phere of Studley, coupled with the once aristocratic presence of its Short-horns. L. F. A. 



* A. B. Allen, in American Agriculturist, A. D. 1841. 



